Fowler, Schauffele break US Open record with 62s at Los Angeles Country Club

LOS ANGELES: Rickie Fowler can always say he was the first to shoot 62 in the US Open.

But only by about 15 minutes.

Xander Schauffele soon matched him on the North course at Los Angeles Country Club with an 8-under 62 of his own, making Thursday a most extraordinary day for scoring in the major known as the toughest test in golf.

The tough part was keeping track of their birdies.

“It’s not really what you expect playing a US Open,” Schauffele said. “But monkey see, monkey do. Was just chasing Rickie up the leaderboard. Glad he was just in front me.”

Fowler was the first, a round so remarkable it included two bogeys when he missed the green on the 254-yard 11th and missed the fairway on the 17th on his front nine. But starting with a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th, he ran off four straight birdies. The streak ended on the par-3 fourth when he came 2 inches away from holing a long bunker shot.

He set the record with a two-putt from just under 60 feet on the par-5 ninth. That’s also when he noticed the leaderboard.

“I knew where I was at,” Fowler said. “I would say from the middle of the round up until the ninth green, our last hole, I didn’t really know or see any scores. And then I saw that Xander was at 7 (under) at that point, and I’m not sure if he even knew where I was or anything.

“But it was kind of cool if he did to see he kind of latched on and we were taking off a bit.”

Schauffele was two groups behind and never too far away. He lost one birdie chance on the short par-4 sixth by trying to drive the green, but then picked up a rare birdie on the 258-yard seventh hole with what he called a “tomahawk 4-iron” to 5 feet.

“That’s pretty much all I have in my body,” Schauffele said.

He got up-and-down from